


Warrior Spirit, Hero's Heart

by Guardian_Rex



Series: Warrior's Spirit, Sorcerer's mind, Rouge's Body, Hero's Heart [2]
Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: AU, Ben faces consequences, Gwen gets some kickass time sooner, Max's shadiness is brought a bit more to the light, if I get to the Kevin part then Max will act like a responsible adult
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-02-09 22:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12897732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_Rex/pseuds/Guardian_Rex
Summary: Ben Tennyson found an alien watch in the woods and now he can turn into aliens.  But what else can the watch do?  With some interference from an interested party?  Plenty.  Follow Ben, Gwen and Max on their adventures across the country





	1. Tutorials and Tips

**Author's Note:**

> So I love Ben 10, I really do, but I remember watching a review of the series in general that made me realize some things. Ben had things a bit too.... easy. Yeah, he faced immediate dangers but few of them ever had lasting consequences that changed how he saw the world. 10-year-olds change pretty easy man. So, here's my thing on how to explain Ben being good with his aliens, without him being the absolute best specimen of each species at the same time.

When Ben’s head hit the pillow of his cot, he was out like a light, in his dreams, he started out on fire.  The heat was dizzying, everything around him ablaze and hazy.  The fire raged like something out of a horror movie, but louder, more intense, a thousand times worse - it was too real to be real.  When Ben reached out to touch something, the fire surrounding it went from red-orange to a yellowish white and the tree branch or bush or whatever it was fell into a pile of ash.  A flash of green came from somewhere, as bright as the flames surrounding Ben’s fiery, rock-covered body and a wave of cold washed over everything, extinguishing the flames until all that burned was Ben himself.  Ben turned to the source of the green light, reminiscent of the alien technology on his wrist now, and saw a boy his age, but clearly not human.  He had blue and white hair that stuck out everywhere like the kid just got out of bed, his skin was a dark tone with a blue tinge to it where Ben’s was normally pinker, and his eyes were two green circles surrounded by black that were bright like flashlights.  “I am so done with creepy stuff tonight.”  Ben resisted the urge to jump at the deep and gravelly sound of his own voice.  The kid smiled, canines sharp, and Ben scowled.  “What’s so funny?  Who are you?”  Ben felt his frustration come out as a burst of flame and stumbled back when he was hit with a cold that matched his heat degree for degree.

“Name’s Goliath,” the kid answered.  “What’s funny is how vivid your imagination is.  Most kids can’t absorb enough information to craft dreams like this.”  Goliath waved at the trees and several shrunk away until only 10 remained.  “So, I can’t help you with not burning everything you touch in this Pyronite form of yours, but I can help you learn how to use it in combat.”  He tilted his head.  “And how to use it to rescue people outside of combat once you’ve gotten a hang of that.”

“Are you like, a psychic alien that can invade dreams and suck out people’s brainpower?”  Ben aimed a smoldering hand at the strange boy, getting laughter for his troubles.  The flames exposed at his fingertips flared up with anger, and the laughter got more intense.

“Sorta like that, I guess,” Goliath finally answered.  “You can’t exactly hurt me, ya know.”  Goliath pointed to the tree closest to Ben.  “And I’m here to help you, Ben.  Your aim could use some work, and if you work on it here, it’ll translate your experience from here into progress the next time you take Pyronite form.”  Goliath drew an hourglass symbol on the tree and the ice morphed to mimic the diamond square that was on the watch when Ben picked an alien.  “Light it up, Ben.”

“Where… Where are we?”  Ben made a fireball, lighter than he’d have thought fire would be if you could touch it, and looked around them.  Something was off about Goliath’s answers.  “This isn’t a dream.”  Ben lobbed the fireball at the tree, which was 10 feet away, and lit the top of it on fire.  “It wouldn’t work the way you said it does if it were.  Dreams can’t make your real body better - everyone’d be a superhero or villain by now if they could.”  Ben was smarter than his cousins - except Ken - or teachers ever gave him credit for.  No way this wasn’t some kinda alien sci-fi magick.

Goliath clapped loudly and grinned at him.  “We’re inside the alien mega tech on your wrist, Benji.  There’s a lot of locked features; I unlocked a useful one.”  Goliath shrugged and pointed at the target, which was put out.  “Basically, your brain got downloaded into the watch.  It’s latched onto you, made itself a part of you like your skin or your lungs.  The watch works with DNA, you know what that is right?”

Ben nodded, making another fireball and trying to get it to be heavier this time.  “It’s what everything that’s alive is made of, right?”  He launched the fireball and it hit the top of the frosty target.  Another tree appeared next to it and Ben hit that one with a quick fireball that landed on the ice at the base of it.

“Yeah, that’s basic but understanding enough,” Goliath hummed.  “The watch takes your DNA, checks over what your body is like, and stores your mind inside the watch for a second while it changes every cell in your body to match the same DNA as the alien that you picked.  And in the same condition as you.  Like uh, like a stat boost in a video game!”  Ben tossed a fireball at Goliath, and the kid matched it with a wave of his hand, the air in front of him freezing so fast ice covered the grass.  The cold met fire and Ben was knocked onto his butt from the explosion.  “Wow, you’re easy to read.  Now, get up and try that again with the trees.  A tip: heat rises, so aim a little lower than your target.”

 

About twenty minutes into target practice, Ben was hitting targets from 30 meters - which were apparently yards but easier to measure - when Goliath tripped him up.  “So I went through your memories and checked the limits of your base form, and I’d say you’re a reasonably fast kid for your age.”  Ben missed the target, higher up now, and lit up the entire treetop instead.  “I see you have bullies you wish to get revenge on.  Wanna get it  _ fast _ ?”

Ben quirked a brow best he could with a rock covered bonfire for a face at Goliath’s big toothy grin.  Ben opened his mouth, ready to ask a thousand and five questions when a flash of green filled his vision and every cell in his body  _ froze _ .  His flames were gone, the rocks rigid and contracting in on themselves and melting into lighter, thinner material.  His fire was magma, rock, a thousand different things he couldn’t make heads or tails of.  He shrunk down by two heads at least, and he grew more fingers.  The flash dimmed and Ben was himself again, a regular flesh and blood human in a dimly lit forest at night.  Even Goliath’s eyes stopped shining so brightly, and the cold from the other switched to a warmth that ebbed away into a comfortable temperature.  “Back to normal.  So, what’s this got to do with revenge and speed, and why were you in my memories?”  Ben was sure that invading someone’s memories violated their privacy on one of the deepest levels.  “Don’t telepaths have rules about stuff like that?”  They did in the comic books.

Goliath shook his head and laughed.  “Human telepaths yeah, but I’m not one of em.  Plus, I need to know certain things if I’m gonna help you.  So, you’ve got a fun form that’s useful for revenge, a speed boost form.”  He waved at Ben in general and his hands gained a soft green glow.  “Also, when you boost your human form’s stats, it makes all your other forms that much better.  But for this, I’m gonna have you learn in here, cause if you went through it all outside of the watch, in your real body?  You’d hurt yourself a  _ lot _ .”  With his eyes dimmed down to something you could look at, Ben finally realized that Goliath’s eyes weren’t just circles like a regular person’s.  They were the hourglass symbol on the watch.

No sooner did Ben have this realization than his body was enveloped in green light and searing heat.  His body was too small, too dense, and his skin was stretching, his bones rearranging, his nails grew sharper and new organs grew all around his body.  The flash was gone and Ben stood in a new body, this time clothed again and wearing a helmet with a blue visor thing.  The glass plate lifted up and he stared at his taloned hands.  “What?”  The shift in weight was enough to take him off balance, unused to having wheels for feet.  He fell onto his face and growled in a raspy voice that was higher than the last one, but still not his own.  “Why?”

“Evolution is weird like that.  There are talons that will come out for you, you just gotta figure out how to flex those muscles.  Now get up.”

* * *

 

When the Tennysons got back on the road, Gwen rummaged through her bag for a book to read.  She noticed the bag was heavier than it should've been and gasped at the textbook thick journal that was resting there in her literature.  On the pink leather cover was a note that read, " _ I know a learner when I see one, so here's a language that could come in handy.  From a friend of your grandmother. _ "  Having read the note out loud, Gwen looked at Ben, who shrugged.

"I dunno know any of grandma's friends.  I didn't even know any of em were still alive." Ben looked back down at his video game and his eyes widened in concentration.  "Ask Grandpa."

Gwen sighed, getting up.  "Grandpa, something weird happened again."  The elderly Tennyson looked back at her in the mirror, slowing down.  "A book appeared in my bag and the note says it's from a friend of grandma's."  Max's grip on the steering wheel tightened to the point that Gwen could hear his finger joints pop.  "Any idea who that might be?"

"Not particularly…" Max said after some thought.  "Your grandmother never took me with her on trips back home to visit friends." Gwen knew when adults were lying to her, a tone they took because she was a child, and her grandpa was lying big time.  "I only ever met one and he didn't leave much if an impression."  Lies.  "Certainly no one who can teleport books to you.  Are you certain you didn't forget it was in there?"

"Ben can turn into Aliens grandpa," Gwen reminded, bringing her cousin's attention to the conversation.  "Not only is that terrifying because he has ADHD, but it's also the epitome of weird.  Not a far stretch to say someone put the book in my bag with like, sci-fi alien tech magick."

"That's a good point.  I found out a cool feature on the watch!"  Ben turned to them.  "It can download my brain so I can learn how to use my aliens quicker.  That's how I knew how to move around as XLR8 - the dinosaur thing."  He frowned, thinking something over for once.  "A uh a telepath named Goliath was in there with me, said he wanted to help… Grandpa?"  The Rustbucket jerked to the right and Ben grabbed Gwen so that she didn't bang her head, thankfully.  Gwen and Ben stared at their grandpa as he corrected himself and slowed to a crawl.

"Goliath wants to help you?"  Grandpa Max sounded … scared.  That wasn't right, he hadn't even looked that scared last night when certain death was in their faces.  "That doesn't bode well for us then."

"He also mentioned human telepaths exist too…"  Ben narrowed his eyes.  "Grandpa Max…"

"What aren't you telling us?"  Gwen crossed her arms, not liking the situation at all.  "Why Goliath's help so bad?"

"Goliath only helps people he finds entertaining.  He sees people as playthings for his amusement or characters in a cartoon."  Max shook his head.  "Ben, if he's focused on you that means we've got one heck of a summer ahead of us."

Ben and Gwen shared a look, and Gwen could tell that Ben wanted to ask more.  Gwen shook her head, trying to say 'grandpa's not ready to spill yet' without saying it.  Ben apparently got the message, because instead of asking for more, he sat down and set his game in front of him.  "Whatever we run into this summer, I can totally handle it!"  Max accepted it or seemed to, and Gwen sat down with a sigh as they sped back up.

She opened the book and another note was there.  ' _ He can't do it alone.  Be there for him. _ '  Well, she did love to learn.   _ Might as well _ .


	2. Fun and Guns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Gwen try playing like regular ish kids and Max ruminates about the future, explaining only bits of his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, I have an actual chapter 2! isn't that amazing? But for real, thanks for the comments guys, that really helps me move forward. Any requests on aliens from the original 10 you'd like to see more of? Cause I'm gonna try and stay true to original Ben's character, but the kid could easily gain a bit more versatility with time.
> 
> also i got super inspired by a comic made by Kuro The Artist, and it's over on Kurothewebsite.com where you can find his awesome comic 5 Years Later which is the best crossover ever

One of their first stops was at a park in Pennsylvania, where Ben busted out his soccer ball and turned a challenging grin Gwen's way.  “Ready to lose, dweeb?  I haven’t beaten you in a game for a while.”  Gwen looked up from her book with an arched brow and Ben bounced the ball between his hands.  “First one to ten goals wins.”  Gwen rolled her eyes and set down her book.

“Happy to beat you, doofus, but we’re missing a few players and we don’t even know if this park even has soccer goals.”  Ben stuck his tongue out at her and Gwen huffed a small laugh.  “Real mature.”

“What 10 year old cares about maturity?”  Ben rolled his eyes and held the ball under his arm.  “You go and find some other kids to play, and I’ll find out if there are any nets around here for us to use or if we gotta improvise.”  Ben opened the door, not really hearing Gwen say ‘sure’ as he ran off with the ball left at the door of the Rustbucket.  It wasn’t long before Ben realized that the park was a lot bigger than he could cover in a few minutes, and he’d get pretty bored fast if he did it all the hard way.  “Looks like a job for XLR8.”  Ben hit the button on the Watch, turned the dial, and slammed it down.  His body flared up into what felt like pure heat before settling into an entirely alien form.  “Much better.”  The faceplate of his helmet slid down, and the blue velociraptor sped off around the grassy tree-dotted park.  It took him a couple minutes to find that no, there weren’t any nets he could use, but there were some trees reasonably distanced from each other for a game.  So, he ran off into the city, grabbed up some netting that wasn’t being used for anything - he checked, the place was abandoned for days - and came back.

When Ben was done with set up, he found Gwen - and 8 other kids - and took all of them to the playing field.  He grabbed the ball out of the Rustbucket and skid to a stop just as the watch started flashing red.  “Who's ready to play?”  He rasped out, retracting the faceplate and setting down the ball.  The watch timed out, and in a big red flash, he was Ben again, rolling the ball under his foot.  “Name’s Ben.”

“You coulda warned me that you were about to do that, jerk,” Gwen jabbed Ben in the arm and the shorter rubbed his arm in mock hurt.  “I see you improvised… where’d you get the nets?”

“I-”

“That was so cool!”  One of the other kids shouted a younger one that was just a little shorter than Ben.  “You were like  _ whoosh _ and then we were all here and then you were a dinosaur but now you’re a kid and that was so cool, how’d you do that?”

“Are you like, a superhero?”  Another kid asked, calmer but with clear awe in his voice.  All of the kids were staring at him with some degree of wonder, and Ben felt a wave of pride rush to his cheeks.  Yeah, that was pride, not a blush.

“Well, I guess kinda?  I didn’t save the world yet, so I’m not a  _ super _ hero yet, but I’m totally a hero.”  He puffed out his chest and stood firmly on the ball.  “I kicked alien robot butt the other day, saved a bunch of people.  Even this dork.”  Ben was expecting the kick that dislodged the ball from his foot and only stumbled a little bit, grin still in place.  “Jealous that I’m a hero and you aren’t?”

“I seem to remember beating a robot thing out of commission to save your butt after you turned back into you and froze up,”  Gwen smirked at the sputtering Ben and turned away from him before he could finish making a comeback.  “Ricky can be my goalie, while Taylor, Jason, Raven and I are on the field.  We’ll switch up after each goal we make.”

“Hey!  You can’t go and pick your whole team all at once like that!”  Ben frowned, picking up the ball and bouncing it on Gwen’s head.  He grinned and caught it with his foot before she could return the favor.  “Whatever, my team’s gonna win.  C’mon guys.”  Ben ran for the closest goal and turned on his heel when the five of them stopped there.  “First thing’s first - names?  I’m Ben.”

“Bruce,” the tallest of them there said.  He had black hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.

“Jessi,” a blonde girl piped up, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Kori,” a tan redhead said, only a little shorter than Bruce.

“Diana, though you can call me Di.”  The only one Ben could tell was about the same age as him, and she was still taller than him by maybe an inch.  Ben hated feeling short, and the only one he was taller than was Jessi!

“Alright, Kori you take the goal, Jessi be ready to snatch the ball if it gets away from me, and everyone keep an eye on either the ball or one of the other players,” Ben said quickly, pointing from kid to kid.  He raised a brow and pointed at Bruce’s raised hand.  “Dude, this isn’t class.  You can just ask your question.”

“Alright, who made you team captain?”  Bruce waved his arms around and frowned.  “And why am I not the goalie when I have the furthest reach?”

“I’m captain cause it’s my ball, I set up the nets, and I don’t see  _ you _ turning into any cool alien heroes.  Can you?”  Silence.  “Thought not.  Kori can reach far enough, and you’ll be able to move faster than us cause you’re taller, so you can keep on the ball.”  Ben rolled his eyes and held out his fist.  “We can totally beat those guys, no matter what tricks they try to pull.”

“Yeah!”  Kori, Jessi, and Di all bumped knuckles with Ben, Bruce joining in when Di nudged him.  “Let’s take em down!”

* * *

 

While the kids were out playing around, Max went through the Rustbucket and ran diagnostic tests on all the defensive systems, checking hiding spots for the weapons he never got rid of.  When he pulled one apart, he checked all its parts and hummed.  “Hasn’t aged a day since I last used it.”  Max reassembled the plasma rifle and set it back in its hiding spot, going for the plasma pistol he had stashed in a compartment within the glove compartment.  It took a few minutes, but eventually, Max found that he had plenty enough weapons on board - all of which were rechargeable, thank gods - in case of another attack from robots.  “This isn’t enough to handle a Goliath level assault, though.  I wish I knew what was coming so that I know what to prepare for.”  Checking one last spot, Max found a regular old rifle that he kept around for human intruders and took a look at its parts too.  “If a shovel could handle them, so can a bullet.”

Just as Max finished reassembling the gun, there was a rumble outside and through the window he caught sight of a lepidopteran being chased through the sky by a band of robots, barely dodging their lasers.  Loading up some ammo he drove toward the havoc and grimaced.  “Good thing I checked on my armory here.”  He stopped near Gwen and a group of children who were hiding in the trees.  “Get inside, and stay inside.”

“What are you gonna do, Grandpa?”  Gwen asked, directing the children up onto the winnebago.  When she got on herself she stared at what was in the passenger seat.  “Is that…a gun?  Where did you-”

“We’ll talk about that later, Gwen, just make sure no one leaves the Rustbucket.”  Max climbed down the stairs and shut the door behind him.  He ran through the trees, keeping track of the giant bug that had to be Ben weaving around laser fire and throwing taunts.  Max stopped when they started circling back and took aim.  When he pulled the trigger, a hole was put through his target, but instead of falling out of the sky entirely, it turned to focus on Max.  He shot again and again, and after the fourth bullet the robot went down before it could fire on the ex-plumber.  When he turned his sights on the other two, he saw one was already dealt with, torn open by Ben’s stinger.  The other one was firing on him pretty bad but Ben swerved around the thing and spat some mucus at the thing’s blaster, containing it and causing it to explode.

An uneasy quiet settled over the park and Max pressed his back against a tree, looking around for any more threats.  Ben seemed to be doing the same in the sky, circling around the park and ducking down lower to the trees at random.  Finally, Max decided that there weren’t anymore threats that he could see after eight minutes of jogging around and he went back to the Rustbucket, Ben regaling what happened to the group.  “And then I flipped around and spit this weird goop stuff at it and covered up its laser thing, and it blew up!”  The other kids visibly relaxed at that and cheered Ben on, who shrugged and sat down.  “Then I flew around the park to make sure there weren’t any more to smash, and then I just flew around cause flying is fun, like really fun.”

Max put his rifle back where he had kept it before and sat down to listen to Ben talk about how flying as a giant fly felt until Gwen finally cleared her throat and nodded toward Max to Ben.  “Alright kids, this was pretty exciting but I think your parents are gonna want to know where you are.  Head on out and find em, and thank you for staying so calm.”  When the kids were gone and the door was closed, Max sat down and sighed.  He smiled at Ben and Gwen, pulling them into a hug.  “You two did good out there, keeping the kids calm and dealing with those robots.  I’m proud.”

“Thanks, grandpa,” the kids said in unison, hugging him back.  When they let go, Gwen continued.  “That was pretty scary, the same robots coming after us twice in a row.  Nice going Ben, you did pretty well for a bug, though I’m impressed that you managed to find a way to stink even worse than you normally do.”  She waved a hand in front her face and laughed, along with Ben and Max.  But then came that curious and demanding look Max had been expecting.  “So grandpa Max, you said you’d explain later why you had a gun in here, and while I’m glad that you did, I’m still curious.”

Max shrugged his shoulder, grasping his memory for the easier false truth.  “I went to a military program in school once to straighten me out, kept the rifle they gave me in case I ever got drafted.  Then I kept it for old time’s sake.”  His easy grin turned into a flat line after a moment.  “Didn’t think I’d ever actually have to use it though.”

“Well… that’ll come in handy I guess,” Ben said finally, breaking the silence.  He stretched and headed out the door.  “I’m gonna go see if there’s anything else to do around here.  You guys wanna join?”

“Sure Ben, I think I’ve got an old baseball and some mitts if you guys wanna play catch?”  Max got up and headed to one of his cubbies in the Rustbucket, rummaging through all the old things he had.

“Actually, I’ve had enough sports for today.  I’m gonna read a book instead.”  Gwen said, pulling out one of her detective novels.  Max and Ben shrugged, grabbing up the baseball stuff and heading out into the park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Max never explicitly said in the show that Ben has to keep the omnitrix a secret. Like, I looked over the first episode over and over again and he only said 'don't mess with that thing till we know what it is' meaning - to a kid or me - "I don't care who you use it around until you know what you're doing when you use it." So yeah, secret ID doesn't seem Ben's style anyway. Tell me what you think in the comments section below, thanks to all of you, have a wonderful day and night, REALITY IS AN ILLUSION THE UNIVERSE IS A HOLOGRAM, BUY GOLD, BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


	3. Warrior Training, Sharpening Tongue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben is still feeling his fight with Animo, and Max thinks he could benefit from a bit of 'military school' training in fighting basics. Gwen decides her books are more interesting and gets surprised by how right she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the sporadic update schedule but it's basically as I finish writing a chapter. Here's what came of my reading your comment, and rolling with it. I wrote these at work and expanded them as I transferred it to the document so if you see any spelling or continuity errors, tell me and I'll fix the fuck outta them.

“And apparently Fourarms’ people are like, from this mostly desert planet, and they gotta deal with these huge worm dragon things!”  Ben shuddered, rubbing the goosebumps from his arms.  “Those things were freaky to see.”

“So Goliath’s basically letting you pick an alien and then you get to figure out what it’s like being them on their world?”  Gwen raised a brow from her position at the half circle chair table thing that Ben forgot the name of.  She went back to typing something on her laptop and focused there.  “Sounds like he’s just giving you a crash course on How To Alien.”

“Yeah well, when I picked XLR8 a second time, Goliath plopped me down in Louisiana.  There were lightning storms there too - made me speed up.”  Ben shrugged.  “I guess round two of figuring them out is knowing where they’d be more at home here on earth.”

“Well, if Goliath’s only showing you things like that, then I have a feeling he’s not actually teaching you anything about self-defense?”  Max asked with a brow quirked.  Ben shook his head and Max hummed.  “You know, I remember a lot from when I was in that military program - I could teach you how to fight as you are.  Might come in handy this summer - maybe even when you go back to school and see whoever it was that had you hanging from a tree when I picked you up.”

Ben’s face heated up at the reminder of what JT and Cash had done to him and Billy, and he nodded.  “Yeah, ok, that might be cool.  Got some boxing gloves or somethin around here?”  Ben started looking in the cubbies for a boxing glove set and Max chuckled.

“Those would be in the second drawer to the left, over there.”  Max pointed and when Ben pulled them out, caught the one he threw.  “I think we’ll start with seeing just how you think you should fight in human form.  You’ve done a lot of fancy moves, and you did pretty good with that scooter in the store, but you’ve mostly been fighting as an alien.”  Max lead Ben outside where he had parked, next to a clearing of trees.  “I want you to show me your best punches and kicks.”

“Maybe I can show him a few moves grandpa?”  Gwen offered, a grin on her face.  “I’m a green belt in Northern Shaolin Kung Fu.  It might help if you have to fight hand to hand as Heatblast.”  Ben tensed up at the thought and Gwen recognized the same kind of fear that everyone in her class felt when she came up to the mat except for a handful of others.   _ He’ll decline getting his butt kicked in three, two, _

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Ben shrugged, relaxing his shoulders a moment too late.  “I think Grandpa can teach me all I need to know here, he’s got more experience.”  Ben knew that Gwen couldn’t see his darkened face, but her laughter suggested she knew he was blushing anyway.  “C’mon grandpa.”  He ran out toward the trees.

“The last time we let Ben go off into the woods alone he came back a person-sized fireball wearing lava rocks,” Max said waving to Gwen.  “You stay entertained, I’ll make sure he doesn’t come back with something else ridiculously dangerous.”

“He  _ is _ something ridiculously dangerous, Grandpa, but have fun.”  Max nodded and waved once more before walking out to follow after his rambunctious grandson.  

It took a few minutes to find him, but when Max did, he found Ben bending backward with a look of strain on his face.  When Ben noticed his grandpa’s presence - and questioning brow - he waved.  “My back still hurts from when that bird dropped me as FourArms.”  Max winced in understanding.  It was a pretty big crater that Ben climbed out of by the time Max got to him, and there were still bandages covering the bruises from the impact.  “Still my body when I go hero, ya know?”

“Right, well, hand me those gloves and stretch yourself out a bit more.  I think I’ll stretch myself and then we’ll get to the first lesson.”  Ben nodded and righted himself before dropping down to lean on one leg for a few seconds, and then on the other.  Meanwhile, Max stretched his arms out, popped the joints in his fingers, and rolled his shoulders a bit.  Finally, the ex-plumber pulled on his boxing gloves and held up both hands opened up.  “Alright, now the first thing I want you to do is to punch my hands.  I need to get a feel for what you think you should do in a fight.”

Ben shrugged.  “Alright, guess that makes sense.”  He held up his fists in front of his face and struck out two quick jabs at his grandpa’s hands.  “How’s that?”  He was answered with a sweep of Max’s foot knocking him on his butt.  “Not so good then?”

“Your stance was alright in the basic sense but it was sloppy and unbalanced.”  Max held out his hand to pick Ben back up.  He held out his hands with a grin.  “Try again, and this time keep yourself grounded.”  Ben narrowed his eyes and raised his fists up.  Max shook his head.  “Right hand forward, left closer to your face in case you need to block.”  Ben blinked and corrected himself before throwing another sloppy punch.  Max swept his foot out and Ben jumped over it.  “Good, work with your body type.  Your arms are a bit too close to your body, though.”  Max swung, catching Ben off guard, and the glove grazed his side.  “Makes it harder to react when you’ve got a strike coming your way.”

Grandpa Max helped adjust the way Ben held himself for a fight and Ben did his best to resume that stance when Max had him drop it and repeat.  Once that was done, he threw a punch at the air and Max shook his head.  “What?  It’s throwin a punch, I don’t see what’s so special about it.”

“You have to put more weight into the movement.  Like this.”  Max showed Ben the right way to do a punch without breaking anything on your own body.  Granted, in an actual fight, he sometimes didn’t have a chance to throw a good punch and instead had to make do with whatever he could, but it was good to know the basics.  “Now you try.”

“This is gonna be a long time thing, isn’t it?”  Ben huffed, shaking himself all over.  “Whatever, this’ll help out in hero stuff.”

* * *

 

After she finished writing a synopsis of the final chapter of the book she had finished and then posted a review of the whole thing online, Gwen found herself bored.  “On one hand, I could go out and kick Ben’s butt in the name of making him better,” she raised one hand, then lowered it and raised the other.  “Or I could enjoy this time to myself a bit more and read my books in peace.”  She weighed the options in her hands for a moment in consideration but found the latter to be more tempting in the end and looked briefly through her books.  The most interesting thing there was, of course, the mysterious gift from her grandmother’s friend.  She picked up where she had left off and mouthed out the pronunciations of the foreign words as best as she could.  “At least the alphabet is the same as ours.”

Turning the page, she found an unexpected passage.   Practice Exercise, follow these steps and the lesson will continue.  “What’s  _ that _ supposed to mean?”  Gwen let her hands flop into her lap and rolled her eyes.  Still, she was a curious 10-year-old at heart.  “Might as well try it.”  The ginger took slow, measured breaths, relaxing each muscle from her toes to her neck, and closed her eyes.  She focused on what she could feel, the fabric of her clothes against her skin, the air blowing in from the open window, the warmth of the sunlight filtered partially through the glass.  In her chest a strange and yet somehow familiar warmth greeted her, reaching out to meet her mental probing.  It spread like water being poured into an engraved pattern, made her body tingle all over and relax at the same time.  

The sunlight that bled through her eyelids faded away slowly, and became something different, brighter and more energizing, yet harsher and more frightening  When Gwen opened her eyes, she had to blink to adjust to her strange new surroundings, which happened to be a white and pink void.  She took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs, the void around her growing brighter along with the scream, and she stopped as soon as she noticed.

“Got that outta your system?”  A voice she didn’t recognize asked.  Gwen whirled around on the invisible ground and saw a blue haired girl with magenta eyes, freckles, and pale, green tinted skin wrapped in orange and black clothing.  “You’ve got some lungs on you - that scream almost woke the dragon up early.”  Gwen raised a brow, swallowing, and the unknown girl pointed down.  Below the ‘floor’ was a coiled up serpent of such size that Gwen couldn’t take it all in at once, though each feature had one thing in common - dark orange fire that simmered and flickered, collectively casting a light that could rival the sun.  The girl covered Gwen’s mouth, muffling the scream that she nearly released in reaction.  The moment she screamed into the hand, the serpent stirred and Gwen’s scream died into a whimper.  An endless moment passed and the serpent stilled, and Gwen’s mouth was uncovered, drawing a breath of relief from the girl.  “We don’t want him up for the next, oh, 2 years?”  The girl said at normal speaking volume, as though there wasn’t a city-sized snake under them that could easily swallow them both whole.  “I’m Goliath, by the way.  Nice to finally meet you.”

“Goliath?  The guy in Ben’s watch?  The one teaching Ben how to be his aliens?”  Goliath nodded, chest puffed out, and a grin on her face.  Gwen stepped back.  “Where are we and what did you do to me?”

“This is a part of your mind that I left you instructions on how to access,” Goliath shrugged.  “All I did to you was come into your mind and wait for you to figure it out.”

“So we’re in, what, my subconscious?”  Gwen asked, disbelief painting her tone as she tapped the see-through, possibly not really there ground.  The monster beneath didn’t wake up and chomp off her foot, which was a good enough result.  “I don’t remember having a snake for an imaginary friend at any point in my short and easy to remember life.”

“Sorta in your mind, partly somewhere else,” Goliath admitted, shrugging and flipping her long hair over her shoulder.  “What do you think of magick?”  Images and nonsense words and the smells of melting candle wax and incense flashed through the space they occupied, and Gwen shrugged.

“It’s an interesting and fun idea, but it’s not… it’s not real, is it?”  The way Goliath grinned suggested that she knew Gwen already knew the answer to that question.  Various see-through fabrics wove around the two, one distorting her view of Goliath to the point where the strange girl was no longer there.

“Maybe,” Goliath answered, sweeping away the curtains and walls and veils with a flick of her wrist.  “Maybe not.  Doesn’t matter right now.  I lured you here for a lesson, and we’re gonna get on it.”  The unsubtle change in subject was obvious, but if Goliath’s suggestions lead to what Gwen thought they did then she didn’t wanna think on that right now.  “The language found within the book I gave you is called Noditian.  It’s the mother language of your grandmother and her people, and while clearly, you’ve learned rather well pretty fast, I noted that you’re mispronouncing the words.  So, I thought having a speaker to talk to would help with things.”  As Goliath spoke, the see-through floor grew dark and dirt covered it for miles, asphalt and concrete soon covering that.  Bricks and concrete, wood and steel all spun themselves into existence and buildings and street signs and the like were crafted.  “I feel a familiar environment with stuff you already know the names of helps you to understand words, yeah?”

“Familiar environment?”  Gwen looked around them and found that it all did seem like she had been there before.  She ran around the corner and spotted the Pizzaria that Ben had them go to on their birthday last December, but the sign wasn’t in English.  It was in Noditian if Gwen was guessing correctly.  “Is this… Bellwood?”  She looked down and saw that Noditian words were etched into the ground, in the concrete and asphalt, and over signs and buildings and bricks.

“More like a replica I built from your memories,” Goliath shrugged.  “Thought it might help like I said.”

Gwen turned back to see Goliath was petting a dog with text hovering over it.  “Uh… sure, let’s talk it out so I can pronounce things right.  But, uh, Ben described you as a boy.”  No other way she could think of to ask about it, so ripping the bandaid off it was.  Instead of frying her brain like grandpa Max’s explanations and Goliath’s own demonstrations suggested the alien might do, she laughed.

“I switch from boy to girl to both to neither, depending on what I’m feeling at the moment.” She shrugged and flipped her hair again.  “I am the best there is, regardless of gender, so whatever.  Now then, time for that lesson.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What use has a god for a singular gender when they could be all or none of them? Also, I imagine that 'gets his underwear hung up on a branch' Ben isn't exactly a combat expert. What did you guys think? Tell me in the comment section, and ya know, review on what you think I should add in as well. I've got a loose plan but feedback solidifies things.
> 
> And I don't mean the Feedback that contained a Big Bang :)
> 
> if you can guess what that snake is, you get a cookie!


	4. Alien Mystery, Linguistic Lesson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Max have a little chat between training subjects and Gwen and Goliath have their own little talk about the future and stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for your patience, life is weird and motivation is fleeting, but I bring to you this fourth chapter! Enjoy

After 10 minutes straight of training in the basics, Ben and Max sat down on a log to rest.  Once he had caught his breath, Ben turned a curious eye to his grandfather.  “Hey Grandpa, that fight with Animo got me thinkin.”

“What about Ben?”  Max’s brows rose up a bit, surprised by the sharing but always glad to hear from either grandkid.

“Well, Animo made his helmet thing that he used to mutate those animals to like, Jurassic size, right?”  Max nodded and Ben held up his watch.  “How come when I first went Heatblast, you said right away that he was an alien?”  Max’s curious smile flattened into a thin line and Ben frowned.  “You said then ‘what else’ but these could be like, magickal monsters or spirits or cryptids like on Weird World, or somethin or even genetic experiments like Animo’s.”  Ben cradled the watch in his lap, staring at Max with open curiosity and a touch of frustration.  “Why were you so sure that I’m not turning into monsters?”

Max stared back, blinking slowly.  He hadn’t considered either of the kids questioning his verdict further than that night, but he definitely should’ve.  The time he spent thinking that about his lie, it looked rather like he was debating his answers, and so Ben simply waited for him.  “Well Ben, you said the watch came from a satellite pod that fell from the sky, didn’t you?”  When Ben nodded slowly, Max gave a half shrug.  “It’s just a guess, but I’m pretty sure only alien technology falls from the sky and latches onto you.”

Ben turned that one over in his head, thinking back to all the video games he had played.  “Yeah, I guess, though there’s also those mystical artifacts that like, spirits or gods give to you.”  Still, he couldn’t poke too many holes in his grandpa’s logic, and Ben could see that Max was uncomfortable with the subject.  Were it Gwen or even Ken, he’d press harder, but with grandpa Max, it felt like he was picking on him.

“Alright, we’ve worked on your punches enough,” Max decided, standing up.  He grabbed his gloves and grinned.  “Now, let’s work on your kicks.”

* * *

“I feel like a baby,” Gwen huffed in frustration, gaze rover over all of the familiar signs with foreign text.  “It’s like I’ve been dumped in a foreign country with barely any context.”  She turned to scowl at the laughing goliath, who was now floating 2 feet off the concrete.  “What’s so funny?”  It was dumb of her, likely, to take up a bratty tone with someone like Goliath.  They were in her mind, or at least somewhat, and Goliath had apparent control.  Who knew what she’d do in response to the wrong thing?

Goliath shrugged and wiped a tear from her eye, shaking with giggles.  “This is how one learns, Gwen.  You figured out English from context clues and hearing adults talk to you and treat your babbling responses like legitimate speech.”  She tossed some seeds onto the sidewalk and commanded, “Obra Ukserk.”  the seeds cracked open, roots sprouted and dug into the concrete.  Brown and green rose up out of the seeds, twisting together until a tree twice Gwen’s size stood before them, blue leaves stretching out to greet the pink light of the sky.  “Ukserk javalf jozor,” she added, as though an afterthought and yellow buds grew out of the branches, blossoming into roses the same yellow as the sun.  Goliath plucked one and with a swipe of her hand removed the thorns.  She put it in Gwen’s hair and smiled.  “It suits you.”

“Thanks, yellow roses are the best!”  Gwen plucked the flower from her hair and gave it a quick sniff.  It was like a regular rose, but also smelled somewhat like a sunflower.  The pink sky and light that covered everything grew to a brighter, warmer shade.

“So what do you plan on being when you grow up?”  Goliath tilted her head.  “You seem the type to know where she wants to go in life.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a scientist or a college professor,” Gwen answered almost instantly.  “Either in computer science, xenology, or literary arts.  It’s a toss up really.”  the ginger shrugged and ran goliaths’ previous words over in her head.  “Laik iv… sadna … med?”

Goliath nodded approvingly at the pronunciation.  “Sadnamed should be one word but anob oroba!  As for Laik, I asked because I salov ipleh.”  Preparing you for the future'd be a good start, wouldn't you say?”  Gwen nodded slowly and Goliath grinned.  “So, for the xenology, you’ve got your cousin as a study subject - I recommend Lepidopterran for the introduction if you can handle the fly’s stink.”

“Yeah, no.”  Gwen shook her head, shuddering.  “I nearly puked all over him from smell alone after he caught me.  I might study Ben as Wildmutt though.”  She hummed in thought.  “Think I could get a collar on him and take him to a dog show?”  The two laughed for a bit and Goliath lead them into a fast food place.  Once seated, Gwen stretched her legs out a bit and rested her chin in her palm.  She tried to figure out what Goliath’s motives could possibly be but nothing really came up except her grandpa’s warning - that she was only doing this to make things more interesting for herself.

“Well,” Goliath said, snapping Gwen out of her thoughts.  “Studying Ben’d help but a professional to look up would be Arthur Beeman, leading xenologist on earth, established peace treaties with a couple ETs and the Earth, owns a few hovercraft.”  Goliath offered a business card of all things, and Gwen sighed.  All the information but the face was written in the strange language that Goliath had been teaching her.  “Part of the lesson darling.  Anyway, I think our time is up, so have a lovely day, keep learning and remember to have fun.”

“Wait, what?”  Before Gwen could question the strange girl, the fake Bellwood melted away and darkness and weight crept back up on her.  Gwen blinked her eyes open to find Ben and grandpa Max staring at her in varying levels of concern - and in Grandpa Max’s case a hint of something more.  Nostalgia maybe.  “Whoa,  that was even weirder than Ben.”  max laughed and Been pouted.

“I take offense to that!  The only thing weirder than me is  _ you _ , doofus.”  Ben jabbed her in the arm and Gwen struck him lightly in the solar plexus.  “Dang you don’t have to stab me with a card, paper cuts are the worst!”

“Card?”  Gwen looked down at the object in her hand and gasped.  “This is the card Goliath gave me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do i love The Secret Saturdays being part of the Ben 10 verse? Will I continue to let the two have subtle references here? Yes, to both of these.
> 
> please, tell me what you thought of this! Your comments are much appreciated!


	5. Magick and Machines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gwen researches a potential future reference for her career path - overachievers amirite?  
> Ben starts doing that whole 'curious about a thing' thing that kids do and looks into one of his trophies of battle.  
> Reports of that ship that's just sorta orbiting the earth with no discernable cloaking tech to be found are all over the internet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I felt this chapter could use some changes, and so I made a couple. A few. Nothing Too major i swear. Just thought the pacing of Gwen and her magick was a bit... too early for an actual Spell, ya know?

“Arthur Beeman is an acclaimed scientist who specializes in almost too many fields to be called a specialist,” Gwen read aloud while Ben tossed a rubber ball between his hands and Grandpa Max drove.  “He’s won too many awards for me to bother listing and apparently a jerk.”

“That on the Wikipedia page, dork?”  Ben taunted lightly, aiming his ball at Gwen’s face.  She caught it without looking, tossed it back, and hit Ben square in his chest.  “Ow.”

“I’m not allowed to use some of the words describing him here.  Apparently, he traded up people skills for negotiations with aliens.”  Gwen looked down at the card Goliath had somehow given her.  “Wonder why Goliath gave me his info?”

“Maybe she’s testing you,” Max offered.  “Trying to see how you’ll respond to her suggestions.  My advice is to get all the facts you can before seeking out a xenologist, especially considering what’s on your cousin’s wrist.”  From his tone, Gwen could tell that Max wasn’t all that ok with she and Ben being Goliath’s current points of focus.

“Speaking of,” Ben said, pulling up the box he had dumped Animo’s device into onto the table.  “I think I need to practice some while I’m awake.”  He pressed the button, turned the dial, and grinned.  “Can’t leave you guys outta the alien fun.”  Before Max or Gwen could protest, Ben had pressed down the faceplate.  In an instant, his worldview expanded.  Skin turned clammy and grey, eyes shifted shape.  His head stretched and compressed itself simultaneously and his clothes changed position as always.  When the flash was over, he was a four-inch-tall frog and the information around him was jumping out for analysis.  “Now we’re talkin.”

“Ah yes, from a midget to a frog.  How amazing for crime fighting.”  Gwen’s voice boomed overhead and Ben winced. Jumping up onto the table.  “What are you doing now, cereal thief?”

Ben rolled his eyes and hopped into the box.  “If you must know, I was thinking that if I can figure out how Animo mutated those animals, I can figure out how this watch works.  Doesn’t hurt to try.”  He shrugged before opening up a panel and crawling inside the device.  A strange level of understanding swept over Ben as he took in all that was around him, and got to work on prodding every little thing within.

* * *

 

Gwen let out a groan of frustration and beat her fists against the table.  “This is ridiculous! I can’t find anything like this language anywhere on the net and I’ve been searching all day!”  If she were less mature Gwen might’ve thrown her laptop at Ben, who was writing something down on his arm with one of her pens.  Thankfully for Ben, however, Gwen knew how pricey it’d be to replace the darn thing. “I’ve gone through every language known to man!”

“Calm down Gwen,” her grandpa said from the front sounding far too amused for her liking.  “The book came from Goliath right? It might not be something you’d find on the internet.” An implication that it wasn’t a human language.  “Maybe look into something else to get your mind off of it?” Trying to keep her from thinking on that implication as it lead to the question of whether or not their grandmother was  human since this was  her native language.

Grandpa was the wrong vent for her frustrations though, he’d shut her down with seniority.  “Ben, what are you even writing? Are you trying to get ink poisoning?” That felt better.  “And who said you could use my pen?”

“Do you need it, dweeb?”  Ben didn’t look up at her but did frown at his arm now instead of sticking his tongue out like a dork.  “Cause I’m tryna make sure I don’t forget anything I learned about Animo’s tech thing.” Oh. Well she couldn’t say she honestly needed it for anything anyway.

“Then why not ask for paper?”  Gwen rolled her eyes and threw one of her blank notebooks at Ben, satisfied when it hit him in the face.  “There, a healthier alternative.” Ben glared at her but was soon lost in writing down whatever it was he’d figured out in Animo’s device.   How he remembered it all was beyond her.

Within reach, however, was the news feeds of the internet, and as frustrating as her search had been Gwen knew Grandpa was right.  So, she looked up some random articles to relax. Only a few in and Gwen could feel unease pooling in her stomach. “Unknown lights spotted above singapore… high-quality images of an unidentified object over hong kong, UFO spotted over the northern hemisphere by various stargazers.  Several people using high powered cameras and telescopes have gathered a pool of photos and videos of the alien ship. NASA, the CNSA, British Space Programme and other programs like them across the globe are refusing to comment on the craft. Civilians have captured images and video of small objects leaving the craft at times!”  Gwen looked from Ben, who was staring at her with his pen frozen over her notebook, to her Grandpa, whose grip on the steering wheel was so tight that his hands were shaking. “Grandpa do you think-”

“The ship that’s been sending out these drones after Ben, yes,” he said, interrupting her.  “If they respond to the Earth’s governments at all, they’re likely to do so with force. That’d be bad.”

“Or worse,” Ben said in a tone that Ben shouldn’t ever be serious enough to use.  “They’ll make like, a deal with the governments to track us down and get the watch, then blow up the planet after anyway.”

“You read too many comics doofus,” Gwen said.  “The governments would never just hand us over to hostile aliens.  We’re civilians!” Gwen turned back to grandpa Max, who had pulled over to the side of the road.  “Ben’s just being paranoid right? They wouldn’t offer up a civilian, especially a kid!”

“Most governments wouldn’t ever consider giving into those kinds of demands,” Grandpa said carefully.  “Let’s hope that’s the majo-” There was an explosion and Gwen was flung to the floor by the force of it.  Gwen’s ears were ringing and it took longer than it should’ve to realize that the winnebago was moving again.  When Gwen opened her eyes, she focused in on the color red. There was a cut on Ben’s forehead, blood leaking down the side of his face while he turned the dial on his watch, and the ringing in Gwen’s ears was replaced with the roar of wind rushing by when the window was down in a car.  Her cousin was hurt, and she knew the cause.

The next thing Gwen knew was that the window  was open because she had her head stuck out of it and her hand was aimed at the drones, shaking with fury.  “ No one hurts my family! ”  That was a much more powerful voice than a 10 year old should’ve been able to muster.  There was such force to her voice, it seemed, that the wind agreed with her, as a wall of solid air slammed into the drones behind them, causing three to cave in from the impact, and some to crash into each other.  Even fireworks had never been more satisfying explosions to Gwen.

“-at?  Why are-” Ben was asking her questions in that techno synth voice that came with Upgrade, and Gwen had to admit that it was a pretty ok idea for the situation.  Still, before she answered him, Gwen gave one experimental flick of her hand, anger still buzzing everywhere inside her. The wind compressed yet again, smacking a drone off course to shoot at its fellow attack bots.

Pulling herself back into the winnebago, Gwen took a slow breath and stared at Ben.  “You were bleeding you know. You should finish up quickly so we can patch you up.” The look on Ben’s face was priceless, and Gwen knew she’d be laughing about it when she had the energy to laugh.  For now, it felt like she weighed a ton.

“Ben, whatever you’re going to do, I suggest you do it now!”  Grandpa said as an explosion went off far too close behind them for comfort.

 

* * *

 

Ben slid out the window and closed it, confused about Gwen and her light show.  He leapt from the Rust Bucket and landed on top of one of the robots, merging with it immediately and giving it a new paint job.  He fired on the other ones around him immediately and flew above them to avoid returning fire. A buzz saw in his center whirred to life and he cut through one drone while blasting yet another.  It looked like it was going to be going alright, even if it was a lot more drones than he was used to.

That thought had come no sooner than the giant papa bot dropped in from the sky and nearly crushed Ben into scraps.  He managed to just barely avoid it, but it was then firing shot after shot, and upgraded as he was, Ben didn’t have time to maneuver and aim at the same time, missing the spots he knew would actually end everything.  “C’mon you microwave, fight fair!” The taunt didn’t do anything to the robot but it definitely made Ben feel better about diving straight for it, buzzsaw revving. Ben jumped from the drone a second before the laser made impact and gelled himself over the big one, invading it’s space and overriding codes.  Before he could finish tearing the thing apart from the inside a searing hot pain covered his everything and the bot was scrap metal, while Ben was rolling on the dirt beside the road.

Ben was dimly aware that the RustBucket had come to a stop behind him a ways back.  He was a bit preoccupied with matching the thing’s laser with a beam of his own. “Gonna take more than that to take me down!”  He hoped he sounded more heroic than dazed, cause that hit was a pretty bad one. Then it occurred to him, later than he’d have liked, that the robot had two laser cannons.  This realization seemed to hit the robot faster than him - though the cannon hit Ben pretty hard and fast. Everything went fuzzy and glitchy for a moment before he took yet another hit, this time twice as bad, and screamed.

When the burning stopped, Ben was looking down at his own pink flesh, the watch’s loadout bright red.  When he looked up at the robot, he saw the barrel of the cannons aiming for him. Ben whispered a heartfelt, “Fuck,” and braced for impact.  Instead of the end of his life though, Ben saw a flash of pink and felt his ears pop at the same time that grinding steel met them. “Whoa.”

Gouges dug into the robot’s exoskeleton, sliced through its legs, and the thing was toppled over by wind so harsh Ben was pretty sure it was aiming at the robot.  When it fell with a thunderous crash and its arms were sliced in half, Ben turned back to look at Gwen, hands blazing bright pink and eyes just as bright. With a couple swings of her arms, Gwen apparently had the wind cutting up the drone across the middle and through the neck.  For a moment, everything was quiet besides the wind, and nobody said anything.

Then Gwen collapsed backward against Grandpa and Ben was halfway to her before he knew he’d moved at all.  “Gwen, are you ok? Gwen?” While Grandpa was holding her up, Ben gave Gwen a few shakes and she scowled but didn’t open her eyes.

“Ben, that’s enough.  Let her rest,’ Grandpa said, voice distant.  “We need to get back on the road, and see about treating that cut on your head… wait a minute.”  Grandpa reached over and lifted up Ben’s hair from his forehead, and Ben winced out of reflex. Then he realized it didn’t hurt half as much as he thought it should.  “Your cut’s gone.”

“Huh.  Guess the watch fixes me up when I’m in alien form?”  Ben stared at the device for a moment, then put his attention back on his cousin.  “Are you sure she’s gonna be ok?”

“Pretty sure she’s just tired Ben,” Grandpa said as he carried her into the Rustbucket.  “After all, she’s never controlled the wind before that I know of.”

“We should ask uncle Frank and Ken, cause she looked like she knew what she was doing.”  Ben was already reaching for Gwen’s phone when Grandpa’s hand swatted his away.

“I assure you Ben, Frank would’ve told me if Gwen had been doing that before,” Grandpa said, much to Ben’s chagrin.  “Let’s just get you cleaned up and head to the next city.”

 

Ben nodded and sat down where he had an ok view on Gwen, who slept dreamlessly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Cause, like, if you go back, you'll notice that Vilgax's ship really did just orbit without disguise. Anyone could see him hangin out there.

**Author's Note:**

> So, yes, Gwen will uncover her magick sooner, but don't worry, she won't completely overshadow Ben. It'll be a bit more equal, is all. But with more focus on Ben. Also considering Ken was the Awesome cousin I'd say he didn't pick on Ben as much as Gwen did, though Gwen was only doing it back i'm sure


End file.
